Couch: MSU's freshman-heavy lineup not yet fab four

Penn State forward Payton Banks (0) high-fives forward Lamar Stevens after a score against the Michigan State during the first half Saturday at the Palestra, as MSU's Miles Bridges, left, and Nick Ward, right, communicate in hindsight.(Photo: Derik Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports)

PHILADELPHIA – Michigan State isn’t ready to feature a four-freshman lineup. It isn’t yet wise to have a game begin without junior point guard Tum Tum Nairn on the court.

The Spartans will get there — to where their most talented lineup is the sensible lineup. They jumped the gun. Even Michigan’s Fab Five, 25 years ago, didn’t make their first start together until Feb. 9. And there isn’t a Chris Webber or 6-foot-8 point guard like Jalen Rose among the Spartans’ freshman class.

On one of the great days in the history of Penn State basketball, the only notable moment for MSU occurred in the second half when Nairn got into Miles Bridges’ chest, looked up at the star freshman and let Bridges have it for failing to collect a loose ball off a rebound. Bridges yelled back. Nairn didn't stop.

“Get the ball!” Nairn said, repeating his message in MSU’s locker room at the Palestra, after a 72-63 loss to the Nittany Lions. “The ball is in front of you, you have to get the ball.”

Explained Bridges: “Tum just told me to get back on my stuff and get going. It didn’t seem like I was ready to go. I wasn’t arguing with him or nothing. I was just telling him, ‘I’ve got him.’ It was intense.”

Nairn is one of the great leaders and most influential people in the Tom Izzo era of MSU basketball. One staffer delayed retirement because of Nairn. Izzo found happiness again with Nairn. But Nairn has his on-court limitations and so he’s on the court less and less. Yet there isn’t another player on MSU’s roster right now who would have done with Bridges what Nairn did.

The Spartans fell behind out of the gate for the third time in four Big Ten games Saturday. This time they ran into an athletic and determined foe in an emotional setting. Playing against MSU at the Palestra in Philadelphia was close to a religious experience for Penn State. MSU’s players treated it more like a fourth-grade class field trip, when you’re told the art on the walls is cool and important, but all you see is naked people and bowls of fruit.

And so MSU (11-6 overall, 3-1 Big Ten) lost a Big Ten road game in a tough environment. It’s not a big deal. It’ll happen again.

It might well have happened just the same if Nairn had been on the floor for the first few minutes to help set the tone. Or maybe the tone is different. The tone MSU set Saturday and early against Rutgers Wednesday doesn’t work.

This isn’t to suggest freshman point guard Cassius Winston should play less or even come off the bench — Winston’s vision and natural feel for offense are elements Nairn will never have. Perhaps start them both. They’ve had good chemistry as a duo when they’ve played together season. I’m also not suggesting that MSU’s four freshmen play fewer overall minutes. Just a few fewer together right now. Leadership has more value when it’s on the court.

“It’s harder, not being out there to start it off, but I’m leading from the bench, I’m doing the best job I can from the bench,” Nairn said.

“We do lack leadership with the guys that are out there playing,” MSU coach Tom Izzo acknowledged. “I mean Tum is a good leader and he played as good as anybody today (he scored 13 points and didn't turn the ball over). But that’s something we’re missing a little bit.”

Junior point guard Tum Tum Nairn had 13 points, two assists and no turnovers in 20 minutes during MSU's loss to Penn State Saturday in Philadelphia.(Photo: Derik Hamilton / USA TODAY Sports)

There isn’t a leader among the freshmen at this stage. Izzo hoped it would be Bridges. His injury, which sidelined him for all of December, has prevented that for the time being. I think it’ll one day be Winston who leads them.

“I wouldn’t say there’s a leader,” freshman center Nick Ward said. “We just naturally come together and we all have that little bond when we play.”

That little bond is nice against Rutgers. Or when the home crowd is giving you life. Or in practice when the consequences are less. That bond isn’t any different than what Denzel Valentine, Gary Harris and Matt Costello had four years ago. Their roles, though, were different.

This is the first time under Izzo MSU has ever relied so heavily on freshmen or had this much freshman talent. It isn’t quite the Fab Five (which folks should remember only finished 11-7 in Big Ten play as freshmen). But it’s a remarkable four, given what’s being asked of them and what they’ve delivered so far. In time, once Bridges is fully himself again and, as a group, they’ve been humbled a couple more times, they might be ready for their album cover, to be hyped as a foursome. Not yet, though.

There was a freshmen-versus-veterans dynamic emerging within MSU’s team this week. Nothing unhealthy. But definitely spirited. It was bound to happen with Bridges back, joining a roster somewhat taken over in his absence by his classmates.

“When we got in our huddle there (in practice), the freshmen were kind of talking trash to the older guys,” MSU associate head coach Dwayne Stephens said Thursday of a lineup that featured Bridges, Winston, Ward, freshman Joshua Langford and senior Eron Harris — same as Saturday’s starting lineup against Penn State. “But the older guys were saying, ‘Hey, we won.’”

“The freshmen came out and thought they were just going to beat us,” redshirt sophomore Kenny Goins said Thursday. “They thought in their minds it was just going to happen. Scoreboard, what was it, 16-4? That’s when they want to get going. It’s just another lesson you can teach them.

“At Indiana, Wisconsin, Maryland, you go down that early, they’re not going to give it up.”

As MSU’s freshmen learned Saturday, Penn State is in that category, too.

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.